As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Display devices for information handling systems include liquid crystal display (LCD) display devices that employ cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) backlights for lighting the display. Current portable information handling systems, such as battery-powered notebook computers, typically utilize LCD display devices having a single CCFL to provide a display brightness of about 150 nits (candelas per square meter) from a single lamp, which is considered acceptable for indoor viewing conditions. However, to adapt current LCD devices for outdoor viewing conditions, a display brightness of greater than about 400 nits from two lamps is desirable. To achieve this greater panel brightness, two CCFL bulbs are often employed for backlighting, e.g. using Y-stack or Z-stack lamp configurations. However, maintaining such a brightness level compromises battery life of a portable information handling system. In this regard, two CCFL lamps effectively doubles the power requirement for a LCD panel (e.g., requiring about 14 watts as compared to 7 watts), dramatically reducing system run time. Even at lower brightness levels, a two lamp system has lower efficiency, consuming more power than a single lamp operating at the same brightness level. Although light emitting diode (LED), RGB LED and white LED backlighting technologies are emerging for notebook computer use, these technologies present significant challenges to overcome such as cost, performance, reliability, and complexity. Even as technical issues with LED backlighting technology are resolved, the high cost of LED technology means that CCFL backlights will remain the predominant LCD backlighting technology for some time to come.